On the road: Moyes still beats the Drum for the discipline of old

David Moyes would have been impressed. Drumchapel Amateurs were 3-0 down at half-time on Saturday. It looked very much as if Chryston would be making it to the next round of the Scottish Amateur League Cup.

But, well beyond the 90th minute, a boot was stuck out for ‘The Drum’ and it was 3-3.

Glenhead Park, on the pebble-dashed housing estate outskirts of Glasgow, echoed to the noise of a handful of spectators cheering the comeback. The Drum had persevered. In extra time they scored three more. They were through.

As he marks 10 fighting years as manager of Everton, Moyes said ‘persistence’ is the best advice he has been given.

Fan of discipline: Everton Manager David Moyes started his career at Drumchapel Amateurs

It is of a kind dispensed at clubs like Drumchapel Amateurs, where Moyes played before joining Celtic as a teenager, where his father, David Moyes Snr, remains a director, and where Moyes’ mother Joan did a share of the laundry.

‘Discipline’ was actually the word Jim Wood plumped for when asked what a character like Moyes would learn at a place like this.

Wood is one reliable witness. He has been with Drumchapel on and off since 1953 and at 72 is still exhorting the current generation to play feet-first football of a style we used to call traditionally Scottish. ‘I’ve got a loud voice,’ he said.

That came after Wood had moved players’ clothes from various pegs in the cramped, pungent dressing room in the treasure-chest of a clubhouse The Drum call home.

Beside each peg is a plaque detailing the former players who had worn that number. Drumchapel’s No 10 was once Sir Alex Ferguson who, like Moyes Snr, is also a club director.

Andy Gray’s name was on the adjacent peg. He was a No 9. David Moyes was a No 5, a centre half.

‘He was a leader,’ said Wood.

Another old boy: Andy Gray also played for Drumchapel Amateurs

Paddy Crerand, John Wark, Archie Gemmill, John Robertson and so many others. The plaques read like a who’s who of Scottish football.

‘I’ve known David since he was born, actually,’ said Wood of Moyes. ‘Dougie Smith, David Snr, myself, we ran Drumchapel Amateurs. We used to have meetings in David Snr’s house.

‘Any time you went there, David Jnr and his brother Kenny would be in the back garden playing football.

‘David played for Scottish schoolboys. Always a centre half. Very young when he went to Celtic.

‘He was always a potential coach, always directing things in front of him. I like centre halves to be captain. He stood out, he was tall and he had vivid ginger hair then. Commanding.’

Wood produced a book. Inside was a picture of Moyes in the same Scotland schoolboy team as Eric Black, Blackburn Rovers’ assistant manager, and Billy Davies.

There were some opinions on that bus.

Asked about Glasgow’s managerial production line, Wood returned to the theme: ‘It’s discipline, and I wouldn’t say aggression, but our manager Charlie is the same.

Before the international days: John Wark is another member of the Drumchapel Amateurs alumni

‘David has the discipline of Drumchapel Amateurs. Fergie has it. You had to have a white shirt, tie and we had blazers in those days.

‘You could speak but you couldn’t swear, on the park or off it. If you did swear, Mr Smith, who started it all, would put his arm around the shoulder and say, “I heard you there. Don’t let it happen again”.

‘So we had standards. Look at David and Fergie now, they’re strict, and they’ve always got ties on.

‘David is a credit to football and he loves youth football. He’s still the same man he was, very disciplined, very sociable like all his family.

‘His father’s a scout with Everton now, he’d bring Everton’s Under 19s up to the likes of St Mirren and Rangers.’

Once Moyes Jnr left Drumchapel, he came back to coach. ‘He was keen on coaching right from the start,’ added Wood. ‘After he became a Celtic player, just over 20, he’d come back to coach.

‘He’d do the ball work, not running.’

At 48, a decade at Goodison Park, Moyes is still going. The Drum bangs within.

'Our culture in peril'

Drumchapel Amateurs were formed in 1950; their last Scotland international was Mo Johnston. In 1983 the YTS scheme meant boys deserted for professional clubs. ‘They were paid £60 a week,’ said Jim Wood.

Today the academy system does much the same and amateur football suffers. In 1997 there were 15 clubs in the local Caledonian League, including Drumchapel. Six have folded. This working-class culture is in peril.

‘Scottish football has deteriorated,’ said Wood, sadly.

‘We’re not using young players now, we’re using foreigners. How many Scottish players are there at Celtic, Rangers, Hearts? That blocks a path. Numbers are down. ‘Very few schools play football now.

‘At the end of the day children from comprehensive schools go home and the sort-of private schools, they’re out playing sport. Rugby.’